Divine hunter chapter two

CHAPTER TWO
It was a frosty morning in Oakland, Maryland. The
first crack of dawn was peering over the distant
mountains, sending bursts of golden red light
streaking across the sky to fight away the dark.
After Lacy Holloway pulled her front door closed,
she paused for a moment to take in the view
which was particularly breathtaking on this brisk
fall morning; one of the reasons why she loved
living so close to the mountains.
Thursdays were usually pretty busy at SPU,
where Lacy worked as an assistant professor in
the Department of Psychology, and today would
be no
exception which was why she was leaving the
house at the crack of dawn. She had plenty to do
before classes started and always preferred to go
into work an hour earlier than needed to make
sure she had everything prepared for the day.
Weighed down with briefcase and files, she walked
to her car and clicked the fob on her keychain to
deactivate the alarm and unlock the doors.
Great. The windscreen was frozen solid.
After getting home as late as she had last night
from work she’d forgotten to put the antifreeze
cover on. She cursed quietly. Avoiding this was
the reason
she’d bought one in the first place. She went to
get the antifreeze spray from the trunk only to
find it empty. She huffed, her cold breath creating
a cloud in front of her face. Not a good start to
the day. She’d have to pop into Jim’s Hardware
store on the way home this evening to pick up
some more and maybe a new brain while she was
at it. Admitting defeat, she grabbed the plastic
scraper from the inside of the driver’s side door
and began attacking the window. A few minutes
and two soggy wet gloves later and she was in
the car, heater full blast, on her way to work.
One of the good things about heading out so
early was the lack of traffic on the roads at that
time of the morning which made the seven mile
trip a pleasant one.
A ground mist covered the woodland on either
side of the road, like a translucent blanket rising
from the earth’s bed. As Lacy looked out at the
long, straight road ahead, the mist-laden forest
stretched out as far as she could see.
The sky was now a rich, golden backdrop to the
tall trees in the distance, its sun ready to peer
over their canopy at any moment.
By now the birds would be singing their morning
chorus’ but Lacy couldn’t hear them as she was
too busy singing along to Charm, her favorite
band at the moment, which blasted through the
stereo. It was her usual morning ritual and the
best way to wake herself up at such an early
hour.
She had worked at SPU for almost three years
now, the only reason she’d moved to Maryland in
the first place. It was the happiest she’d been in
a long time being in the small picturesque town of
Oakland, Garrett Co. Even though she was away
from all of her old friends she’d settled in well,
finally feeling
comfortable enough to call the place home.it had
been almost three and a half years since her
grandma had died, leaving her house and all her
other belongings to Lacy who was her only living
grandchild. It was hard for her to continue to live
in the house after that because there were far too
many reminders of her past. The house had
seemed too strange with only her in it so, after
battling with her conscience because she knew
how much her grandma had adored the place,
she put it up for sale. In the meantime a vacancy
had popped up at SPU. Lacy applied, got an
interview and sailed through it. They offered her
the job just after she’d accepted an offer on the
house.
For once in her life things had fallen into place
perfectly.
She still really didn’t know that many people in
town aside from work colleagues and only had a
couple of friends−none she knew well enough to
really rely on−but she was happy with the way
things were. Since moving to the states when she
was fourteen, she’d always been a bit of a loner.
In fact, even
Before then. She’d moved away from her only
parent leaving her life and her troubled mother
behind in England to start afresh with her
grandparents in Ohio.
Her grandfather had died when she was twenty-
two, leaving another gaping hole in Lacy’s life.
After that it had just been her and her grandma
who never
got over the loss of her beloved husband and,
Lacy suspected, eventually died of a broken heart.
It’s as if Lacy was meant to be alone.
She was fine with that now though. Besides, her
work kept her busy so she had no time for a
social life anyway, even if she wanted one−been
there, done that and found it hard juggling the
two. Destined to be on my own. . .
As she ironically sang about there being “nobody
who can comfort me”, she glanced down at the
clock above the stereo to check the time and just
as she
looked back out of the windscreen she gasped
and swerved to avoid a dark figure standing in
the road. The Ford Focus came to a screeching
halt just
before the grass banking. Before Lacy could
gather herself, she looked back through the rear
window, eyes wide, frantically scanning the area.
Nothing there.
She glanced over her shoulder, her heart pounding
in her chest so much that it felt like it would
burst through her rib cage at any second.
Nothing there either.
“poo"
She slammed the off button on the stereo and sat
for a moment in silence, her heartbeat drummed
loudly in her ears as she forced herself to breathe
steadily−in and out, in and out−in a bid to calm
herself down. She double checked the area to
make sure there was definitely no one there. What
the hell
was that? Had she imagined it? Her stomach
suddenly felt heavy and a wave of nausea washed
over her. Oh no! Not that. Please. Not those
damn hallucinations . She thought as she reached
for the door handle with a shaky hand. She got
out and, after another quick glance around, her
eyes checked the car over: everything okay. So far
so good until she reached the passenger side
where. . .
Dammit!
Her front tire was shredded.
So much for getting into work early, now she’d
have to call AAA and wait God knows how long
for a truck to get to her. She had one last glance
behind her before she got back in the car and
reached over the passenger seat for her purse.
She fished around for her cell, called a report in
and was told they’d be there within the hour.
She sat quietly playing what had just happened
over in her mind. It had happened so fast she’d
barely had time to register what it was that was
in the
Road. Could it have been an animal? No. The
only animal that could be that big would be a
bear or something, but there’s no way it could
have disappeared that quickly into the forest.
There one minute, gone the next.
A person?
Lacy let out a long sigh. Yes, she thought, a
person that was probably only ever there in her
mind.
She cursed.
All those therapy sessions were supposed to have
worked. Post Traumatic Stress her therapist had
put the hallucinations down to after many hours
of delving into Lacy’s past. You’d think she’d
have been able to diagnose herself given her
profession, but that had never happened, which is
the reason she’d
hoped that someone else could. Well, it had all
been a complete waste of money now. Oh well,
nothing that another few sessions couldn’t fix,
she supposed, then she could look forward to
another five years without them.
She rested her head on the back of her seat and
waited for the recovery truck.